JEDDAH: An Indian doctor has been found innocent of charges of murdering her husband, ending a 10-month long investigation and a travel ban, a senior Indian diplomat said Tuesday. She was accused of murdering him because he had become a Muslim. “We at the embassy and the consulate, and the Indian community, feel immensely relieved by the decision of the Saudi government to finally close this case in favor of the widow Dr. Shalini Chawla,” said Sayeed Ahmed Baba, Consul General of India. The Indian mission in the Kingdom had taken up Chawla's case, having “full faith in the Kingdom's investigation agencies and the law”, he told Saudi Gazette. Chawla, 36, left Jeddah Tuesday with her 10-month-old baby, two-year-old daughter, and the body of her husband, for New Delhi where he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery. “My late husband died as a Muslim and his funeral will be held as per the Islamic rituals in New Delhi,” she told the Saudi Gazette. “It was a nightmare, but thank God I'm going back home after a year of misery. I don't know what I will do next. It was just my fate to go through all of these hardships. May no one see what I have gone through,” said Chawla, who was the prime suspect in her husband's death after he changed his Hindu faith to Islam. Ashish Chawla, 36, died in his sleep on Jan. 31. It was suspected he had been poisoned by his wife. An initial medical report from King Khaled Hospital in Najran stated that the cause of death was “myocardial infarction” (or heart attack). The report also certified that there was “no sign of any injury, crime, or fight”, according to a statement released by the Indian Consulate in Jeddah. Authorities, however, swung into action after being tipped off that his Hindu wife poisoned him after his conversion to Islam, detaining the wife and conducting further investigations. Chawla said that her husband never discussed his intention to embrace Islam. But after his death, his friends revealed that he had become a Muslim. “During my interrogation, I heard that my husband died the night before he was going to announce officially in the mosque his conversion to Islam. However, I did not find any proof of his conversion and his name is not registered in any Islamic center,” she said. The woman was taken into custody on March 16 for over three weeks with her then 34-day-old baby boy Vedant. She had planned to have her baby in India after she resigned from her job at the internal medicine department at King Khaled Hospital in Najran before her husband's death. Chawla's 2-year-old daughter, Reona, was staying with her grandmother at the hospital's housing complex. “Many families in the complex came to my help. And while I was in prison, they took care of my little girl and mom,” she added. Authorities obtained a second medical report from the Center for Toxicology and Forensics in Makkah stating that the autopsy did not confirm that the husband was killed by poisoning.She said that she had no idea who falsely informed the police that she had poisoned her husband. “I heard that they were our colleagues but I don't want to know about them,” she said. Sources close to the family said that the deceased was suffering from a subtle cardiac ailment known as “sick sinus syndrome,” which could cause sudden cardiac arrest leading to death. On April 11, the Consul General met with Prince Mish'al Bin Abdullah, Emir of Najran, and asked for permission to close the case and allow Chawla to leave the country. Three months later, the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) in Najran, which was in charge of investigating the case, recommended its head office in Riyadh to close the case based on the new evidence from the toxic test results. The BIP head office in Riyadh ordered a third and final autopsy by an independent team of Riyadh doctors. The team examined the body and found that the husband died of natural causes, confirming a heart attack. On Dec. 3, Saudi authorities informed the Indian consul general that they closed the case with no charges against the wife and allowed her to leave the country with her children and the body of her husband. Baba said that both the Indian embassy and the consulate stood by the widow and supported her case. “We are also thankful to King Khaled Hospital in Najran for providing her the much-needed shelter in the complex and for looking after her,” Baba added. “My only concern now is going back home. I've two children to take care of now,” Chawla said as she was preparing to fly back to India.
